PHILADELPHIA — You know it’s been a good season when your sophomore season kicker is the most viable “most valuable player” for your team. But Eagles placekicker Alex Henery has certainly earned such status.

After his first season, in which he connected on 24 of 27 field goal attempts — purportedly the best success ratio (88.9 percent) by an NFL rookie — Henery has hit on 20 of 21 attempts this year, and broke a David Akers record by riding what currently is a string of 19 field goals in a row.

“It’s cool to be right up there with guys like that,” Henery said of Akers. “But to me, it doesn’t matter as long as I’m going out there and doing my job.”

He’s doing it so well, there has been speculation Henery is in line for a Pro Bowl selection.

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“That would be really cool,” said the second-year man out of Nebraska, “but I think I’m too young for that. It’s one of those things I don’t really (consider). Until it happens I won’t really believe it.”

Billed in his Eagles bio as “the most accurate kicker in NCAA history,” Henery was asked what kind of field goal streaks he constructed with the Huskers.

“I think I made ... them all,” Henery said. “But I don’t think it was a streak like that.”

There’s no question that a byproduct of the Eagles’ ever-increasing embarrassment over the play of the defense, especially that of the veteran secondary, is that Todd Bowles has been put into the forefront of the backlash.

An accomplished safety back in the day and assistant coach in the NFL for much of the past 13 lucky years, Bowles has had better timing during his multi-faceted football career than he’s had over the past several weeks. Promoted to defensive coordinator during the bye week, he’s seen the Eagles go 0-5 since with steadily slipping defensive showings.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the team as a whole,” Bowles, 49, said Thursday. “Everybody has their part in it, me included. I’ll take my share of the blame as well. We just have to play better and we haven’t been.”

A new wrinkle in Bowles’ extended nightmare happened Monday night, when the less-than accomplished Carolina Panthers blitzed them through the air. Quarterback Cam Newton, struggling all year, threw for two touchdowns and 306 yards to a host of wide-open receivers.

Bowles bemoaned the blown coverages after the game, but Thursday was more reserved in discussing something he knows about: the performances of the safeties.

“They’re tough and they play smart,” Bowles said. “They play smart most of the time. They’ve made their mistakes as has everybody else.”

Said safety Kurt Coleman about Bowles: “He’s going to continue to work hard. He’s given us great game plans. We have to be able to execute them and there’s only so much that a coach can do.”

NOTES

Coleman didn’t seem to like the subject of the secondary’s misadventures of late. “I want to see everyone in here go out there and play in a game,” Coleman said with a reference to the media. “See what happens. See what happens when you have five seconds to get lined up and make a call.” Lightening up, he added, “It’s just something where two guys see two different things. Offenses game-plan, and as a defense you have to be able to adjust in a matter of seconds.” ... Once again, Mike Vick fell short in his attempt to pass a concussion test. He’s out for Sunday. Fellow concussee LeSean McCoy is still at the first step in his recovery phase. Joining them on the outs list, of course, is DeSean Jackson, out for the rest of the season with rib area fractures. His replacement is rookie Damaris Johnson, who said Jackson is, “a player that definitely stretches defenses.” Can he be that? “Maybe not as much as him, but I’m trying to do that,” Johnson said.